Shari Szabo of Lakewood said Cleveland Pride continues to grow “because there is a growing population every year, and more and more people are comfortable with who they are.”

Todd Saporito, president and CEO of Cleveland Pride board, said the combination of the supreme-court decision, the awareness that the Gay Games will be in Cleveland in 2014, and that fact that this is the silver anniversary of the Pride event "are what brought people together.

Saporito beamed in the early afternoon as he predicted the today’s event would draw 25,000, about 3,000 more than last year.

The parade – with an estimated 60 groups encompassing at least 2,000 people – took nearly an hour to complete the route from West Third Street and St. Clair Avenue to Voinovich Park at the foot of East Ninth Street.

At least a dozen United Church of Christ congregations brought an estimated 300 people from throughout Cuyahoga, Summit and Stark counties for the parade.

Bill Grulich of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, said this is the first year for the UCC congregations to march together.

Margaret Downing of Lakewood said all the congregations in the parade are defined by UCC doctrine as open and affirming, which means they welcome people of every sexual orientation into the faith and the ministry.

United Church of Christ, she said, "has always been on the forefront” of the issue.

The only clash during the parade occurred toward the end of the parade, near City Hall. There members of a self-identified Christian group used a loudspeaker to try and shout down the people in the parade because of their sexual orientation.

The handful of protesters were difficult for many to see as members of a Unitarian Universalist congregation dressed as angels and served as a barrier between the parade and its critics.

Saporito said this is at least the third year for the work of the angels at the parade. They began the practice by trying to shield mourners at military funerals, he said. Saporito referred to anti-gay activists who have equated military deaths with God’s wrath.

Saporito said this also is the third year in a row when rain threatened in the morning but cleared in time for the parade and subsequent festival.

“I woke up to texts saying ‘It’s going to rain.’ I said 'no it’s not. Be there',” he said.

The sun illuminated the event, he said but so did the realization by many first-time attendees “who are seeing they are not alone for the very first time.”

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